Flash Fiction 2

“Snow”

After reading the second packet of flash fiction, there was one story that stuck out to me just as much as “Pendergast’s Daughter” did: Snow.  The author, Julia Alvarez, is able to write in a way that I can see the story as I read it.  This story was my favorite because I liked the story line.  I could understand why the girl thought the snow was a bomb, and I could feel the way she was feeling.  The way that Alvarez writes the story “Snow,” lets the audience project the images in their mind while reading.

Flash Fiction

“Pendergast’s Daughter”

After reading the first packet of flash fiction, there was one story that stuck out to me, “Pendergast’s Daughter.”  This story is my favorite because of the imagery that is so vivid and attention grabbing.  It’s not that I like the idea of the story, but the author, Lex Williford, writes the story so it can be imagined while reading.  As soon as the story begins, in medias res, I could see everything that is going on.  And even throughout the whole story, I could picture everything that I was reading.  Even though this story is short, it can still make an impact like a piece of literature can. 

“Death Constant Beyond Love” & “The Man from Mars”

In the story “Death Constant Beyond Love,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author chooses to make wise craft choices on theme.  What I got out of this story as the controlling idea, or major theme, is that you only live once, so live it up.  The main character, Senator Onesimo Sanchez, only has six months and eleven days until his death.  As the story goes on, we see his duties as a senator, and it isn’t until the very end of the story where we see the theme.  When the senator gets the chance to be with Laura, he soon finds out she is pad-locked up, a chastity belt.  In order to get the key to unlock her, he has to help Laura’s father straighten out a situation that he didn’t necessarily want to do.  But, seems how he only  has such a short time to live, he gives in,  once Laura hears this, she asks if he wants the key, but instead, he just wants her to lay there with him and keep him company.  The author chooses to make the decision of the theme coming out in the end so that’s what the audience is left with thinking about.

In the story “The Man from Mars,” by Margaret Atwood, she decides to make good decisions on character development.  In the beginning of the story, the oriental man seems like a normal tourist, or someone who is new to the area where Christine lives.  While the story progresses, we soon realize that he is nice (always smiling) and just wants a friend, but soon takes it too far.  After awhile, he becomes what I would consider a stalker.  This development of character helps the audience better understand the story.  Imagine if the oriental man stayed flat, the story would go no where, or at least it wouldn’t be interesting. 

“The Hitchhiking Game” & “Three Million Yen”

1.       In both stories, they show similar themes.  The main theme in both stories is relationships, and not just normal relationships, but very abnormal relationships.  In both of these stories, the relationships show a lot of stress and coping that takes place between mainly the girls in both stories.  Both of the couples are definitely in love, but they still have issues.  In “Three Million Yen,” the couple is happily married, but they perform sex for an audience.  In “The Hitchhiking Game,” the couple seems to be perfectly fine until the hitchhiking game begins.  Also, in both stories, a theme that could be considered is sexual innuendos.  In both stories, the couples are portrayed as sexual objects.  In “Three Million Yen,” it is the couple who are the sexual objects.  They get paid to have sex in front of an audience.  In “The Hitchhiking Game,” the young woman would be the sexual object.  By the end of the story, the young man keeps calling the young woman a whore and takes her to a hotel where he makes her strip, get up on a table and dance, and then he eventually has sex with her.  It wouldn’t have been forced upon sex if the hitchhiking game had never started.

2.      In both of these stories, they share similar craft choices that the authors made.  The craft choice that is similar is character.  At the beginning of the stories, both authors make conscious decisions to make it seem like both couples are “normal.”  But, as the stories progress, the characters grow and change.  The couples in both stories are dynamic characters.  Through the choices that the authors made, they made their characters very, very dynamic.  This attracts the readers more by having dynamic characters instead of flat ones.

3.      The effect that these craft choices have on the audience is that it keeps the audience wondering what is going on, what is going to happen?  Because both authors begin the story with normal characters and then change them drastically throughout the story, it keeps the audience engaged.  The changes and growth the characters go through make it so the audience can relate.  If the characters were to stay the same throughout the story and never develop, the audience wouldn’t feel one with the characters.  The craft choices that both authors chose for their characters allow us, the audience, to connect with the story and the characters in it in some way or another.

“The Supper” & “The Drunkard”

In the story, “The Supper,” the author makes wise craft choices on imagery.  Jumping right into the story, it starts off with images.  We get to see how the weather is looking outside, darkness thickening, and at last rain is beginning to fall.  Not only can we see these images, but we can use all out senses to imagine these images.  The audience can see, smell, taste, feel, and hear the images being projected.  The way that the author, Tadeusz Borowski, uses imagery to attract our senses, the audience can get a sense of how horrible it was to live in a concentration camp.  We get to feel the way the crowd feels.  We even get to sense their starvation by the end of the story.  The way Borowski uses imagery lets the audience feel one with the story and the characters in it.

In “The Supper,” Borowski gives good imagery regarding his craft choice.  In “The Drunkard,” the author makes different craft choices to better the story.  “The Drunkard” shows very well-developed, round characters.  If this story had flat, static characters, then the story wouldn’t make the impact it does.  In the beginning of the story, we get a taste of all characters.  The father, who likes to drink, becomes very round right off.  He continues to stay round throughout the entire story, and even helps make his son Larry, a round character.  Not until the middle of the story does Larry become a round character.  At first, he’s just the son of a mother and drunkard father.  When Larry’s time come, to get drunk just like his father always does, we get to see him grow and become dynamic.  Although there are a couple round, full personality characters, there are a couple who stay flat, one being the mother.  We only see her briefly at the beginning and end of the story, which then she gives us a couple strong lines.  But, the story isn’t about her, just the father and son, so it wasn’t important to make the mother a dynamic character.

“The Piano”

In “The Piano,” the author uses imagery to reflect the content of the story.  The piano that Oliveira family treasure so much because it has been passed down from generation to generation and has stayed with the family and the family only.  This piano is described immensely throughout the story.  We get to sense like the piano is right in front of us, learning lots of details.  Not only is the piano in plain sight for us, but the author also uses imagery to explain how much this piano means to the family.  The author uses conscious choices in how he portrays these images, showing just how much the piano actually means.  Because of the fact that the father is willing to give up that family treasure, he will be accepting another into the family instead.  By giving up the piano, Sara, his daughter, will be able to have her room ready for her and soon to be husband.  Machado uses imagery to show the audience how much the piano means to the family, but also how worth it it is to get rid of it to make Sara, and the rest of the family happy.

Formalist Assertion

“In the Penal Colony” & “Thirst”

1.       The setting for both “In the Penal Colony and “Thirst” have the same mood.  Both of these stories are very morbid.  These stories are anything but happy, loveable, and pleasurable.  Both share the quality of being “ruff around the edges” because there are no smooth turns in these two stories.  In “In the Penal Colony,” and “Thirst,” there is pain being portrayed in the meaning of the stories.  In “Thirst,” we can feel the pain and suffering of the man who has done wrong and will now pay the price, thirst.  All he wants is a cup of water to soothe his dry throat.  We can feel his agony, sense his pain.  In “In the Penal Colony,” there can be a couple different ways of representing the theme of pain.  When we get the description of the torture device, or their way of punishment, we can feel the pain one would get from the device.  Also, at the end of the story, we actually get to be put through the events of the device, the only thing is, everything goes wrong, and only pierces one stake through the head of the officer.  Which, this event wasn’t meant for him in the first place, but was meant for the condemned man.  Once realizing what he does to “criminals” from the perspective of the explorer, he puts himself in for his very own punishment, because in his eyes, he’s the criminal.  We can see and feel the pain of the officer at the end of the story.

2.      Both of the stories, “In the Penal Colony,” and “Thirst” are similar in their way of craft because their tone/mood/theme is the same: morbid.